Mixed reactions have greeted Snapchat’s introduction of its own AI chatbot, with some criticizing its popularity on the social media platform. The same technology that is being included in Microsoft’s Bing search engine, OpenAI’s GPT, powers it. Only paying subscribers have the ability to delete the My AI feature, which is permanently pinned to the top of users’ conversation streams.
Online criticism has resulted from this, and there is now uncertainty around how the app uses location data. My AI, which Snap referred to as “an experimental, friendly chatbot,” is capable of giving advice, scheduling trips, and other activities. However, it acknowledged that the tool might not always be accurate and that its answers “may include biased, incorrect, harmful, or misleading content”.
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Snapchat introduces AI chatbot to mixed reviews https://t.co/kTgzRVHsFE
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) April 26, 2023
After initially being introduced to premium customers, My AI has now been made available to millions of users worldwide. Users can access pinning and unpinning capabilities, My AI, and other customization options by purchasing Snapchat+, which costs £3.99 per month in the UK. According to a Snap spokesman, the “vast majority” of users who had access to My AI early on had been happy with it, and millions of messages were being delivered every day. We value all the comments from our enthusiastic community as we work to make the experience better.
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Location, Place, Place
Disgruntled customers in the US “review bombed” the app. According to news outlet Techcrunch, Snapchat received a number of one-star ratings on Apple’s App Store. The reviews, however, have been more circumspect in the UK. Even if there are negative app store reviews, some of them come from consumers who are upset that they can’t use the feature.
It has received a lot of praise, and UK users are increasingly requesting it to rank football players or identify the top player in the Premier League. Additionally, Snap has come under fire for being ambiguous about whether the chatbot can access sensitive information, such as location data. Snap responded by explaining how location information is utilized in My AI in a blog post and stating that the chatbot “does not collect any new location information” from its users.
According to the statement, “Snapchat can only ever access your location if you consent to share it.”
The company also stated that My AI has been modified to “clarify when it is aware of a Snapchatter’s location, and when it isn’t.”
“Privacy is a foundational value for us – it is critical to our core use case of helping people visually communicate with their friends and family,” the statement read.
We want to be as upfront as we can with our community about how each of our products uses their data, while also minimizing the amount of data we gather throughout our whole app.
